The Shelby County Election Commission's headaches can be summarized in an e-mail sent this morning: "The Shelby County Election Commission, Operations and Technology Committee, scheduled for July 14, 2009, 4:30 p.m., 980 Nixon Drive has been canceled and rescheduled for Wednesday, July 22, 2009, at 3:30 p.m."
That's all a long way of saying the Commission continues in the mode of hurry up and wait. Commission chairman Bill Giannini said today the lingering uncertainty over the retirement plans of Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton made it necessary to move the meeting.
"We need to meet after the City Council meets on the 21st anyway, so we just decided to move it to the 22nd instead of getting everybody together today," Giannini said. "We are also in the middle of a move over to the courthouse. It's also hard on the staff to have them all go to the ops center (at Shelby Farms) this week and next week."
Until Herenton has officially retired (he promises July 30 is the magic day) and the City Council has passed a viable resolution declaring the office of mayor vacant, the Commission must wait before beginning to plan for what promises to be a wide open and crowded special election. Assuming July 30 becomes the official retirement date, the election would be held likely the final week of October, with the Commission's preference either Tuesday Oct. 27 or Thursday Oct. 29. Right now, the City Council resolution, read literally, calls for an election held on Friday, Oct. 30 -- Halloween eve and a getaway day for Memphians who travel on weekends.
"We will probably send a little nudge over to the Council to say, 'Hey, guys, FYI, you know you've got it on a Friday right now,' " Giannini said.
For the Commission, this was supposed to be a very light election year after several years of exhausting election seasons. The Commission had hoped the mostly fallow year would allow them to improve planning, technology and organization -- some of it mandated by law.
"This will definitely set us back and cause us to reprioritize on a short-term basis," Giannini said. "It's nothing that would affect future elections. It's just some things we were hoping to do out of want, not out of need."
The retirement delay, Giannini said, also likely means the filing deadline will fall sometime in mid-September -- "Six Saturdays before the election," he said -- with the withdrawal deadline following a week later. As soon as the retirement date is final and the election is scheduled, however, candidates will be able to begin pulling petitions and filing. There will also be early voting, likely at the same satellite sites used in past elections.
"One bright side of the delay," Giannini said, "is that he's given us a little more time to prepare."
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